It’s Freshers’ Week again and medical school campuses around the country are alive with excited chatter.
We caught up with Steven who’s just started his first year. He told us: ‘Freshers has been great, I’ve survived my first real hangover and even found time to join the Socialist Workers Party.
And in a desperate bid to project a false image of myself I’ve purchased a copy of Das Kapital, I listen almost exclusively to the Smiths and I’ve grown a hipster beard. Because I can.’
Steven, who from now on wants to be known as Stevo, said: ‘In real life my mum buys my pants for me, but since coming to university I’ve thrown myself into an alternative life style of sitting cross-legged on pavements, using the word zucchini and smoking basil roll-ups. Have you got any paracetamol, by the way?’
‘My flat mates and I had our first bonding night,’ said Katie, a first year medical student who insists on wearing a floral crown. ‘This mainly involved talking about our A-levels and our year spent travelling the world. Except I spent the whole time working in Gap to give me enough money for the gas bill. Please don’t tell anyone.’
Stevo said: ‘I’ve heard all the warnings about how shit a career in medicine is because both of my parents are GPs, but I’ve decided to ignore them because I’m different. Besides, what else can I do with 20 A-stars?’
‘I can’t wait to have all of my hopes, enthusiasms and expectations slowly eroded away by bitter experience,’ he added.
Dr Kevin Hinkley is a GP in Aberdeen.
